This is the one with all the pictures

This was supposed to be the post with all the pictures of all the fun stuff we've done lately but not blogged about because it needed pictures. Well, I finally got to sit down at the computer this weekend for a couple of minutes and downloaded these couple of pictures. Meanwhile youngest angel daughter unrolled a whole roll of cherry flavoured dental floss and elder angel daughter got into the bottom drawer of her dresser and toppled the whole thing over on top of herself. But at least I got my pictures. See what lenghts I go through? The rest of the pictures will have to wait until I get more dental floss.

These first ones are the dolls I made for Christmas for DD's dollhouse. She was suitably impressed. I made them all on my lunchhours at work from stuff I already had (or scammed off of other people).


This one is the princess. DD was all into princesses this year (yes, she's 4 and a girl and her favourite color is pink. surprised?)

This one is the baby. It might be hard to tell, but they all have streaks of white hair just like my girls and their dad. I was proud of the brown hair on the baby- I found that piece on the floor in my office. I know not everyone would think that is cool.

I decided I want to be the redhead.

This is a shirt that I painted for my brother in law for Christmas. He's a computer guy. I hope he actually wears it someday...

And this is the shirt that I painted for another brother in law. He's a comic collector. As an aside, I learned a valuable lesson with this project - stain resistant means paint resistant also.

There's a third shirt in the series that I don't think I got a picture of. It is for the third brother in law. It is a windshield with a bug smooshed on it (sewed on wool bits), and the tag says one one side: "sometimes you're the windshield" on the other side: "sometimes you're the bug"

My thumb was sore yesterday from embroidering, so it can't have been that bad of a weekend, right? Sometimes I get caught up in the disappointment of all the stuff I'd like to do but can't. This post is to remind me that we have done an awful lot of cool things lately. There are several times more pictures back home on the harddrive that didn't make it into this post. Like the morning we had stewed blueberries for breakfast, the birdhouses, several more shirt paintings. We're just not as well documented as some people, but it doesn't mean the richness isn't there. Sometimes I have to remind myself.

Thinking about Celebrating.

Seriously – it’s the end of February already!
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and planning and scheming as of late about celebrating with our family. It’s almost Ayyam-i-ha time which is a 4 day long Baha’i celebration. The great thing about being a Baha’i (ok, not the only great thing) is that we don’t have so many traditions. Sometimes this is a pain in the butt because we don’t have a way already figured out to celebrate things, but this leaves us the freedom to make the celebration what we want. I’ve been trying to figure out how to do this for a while now. I grew up in a Baha’i family and we were pretty haphazard about celebrating. We tried various things from decorating mom’s jade tree to odd stealing gift exchanges.
Now that I’m the matriarch of my own little family (haha) I’m yearning to create some great memories for my family. Here is the product of my brainstorm this year:

4 types of things we’ll do:
Decorate
Celebrate
Community
Family

goals:
anticipate
flexible
fun
creative/ thoughtful
tradition
fresh

not:
consumerism
Christmas (my pet peeve – this is not Baha’i Christmas. Plus we also celebrate Christmas with other family, so it’s a big deal for me that this is distinct from Christmas.)
fussy
difficult
burden/obligation

Ayyam-i-ha is 4 days – why not take advantage of that?
4 Things:
1. fun activity
2. gift
3. service project
4. ?

I found 4 sturdy boxes with lids to decorate - they’ll contain something special for each day – a gift, a clue for a scavenger hunt or where to find something that wouldn’t fit in the boxes, materials to do some activity etc.

So, this year our 4 things are:
1. for A. – craft materials.
2. for A. - letters stamps.
3. community party at our house. this is our service project this year.
4. family trip to a nearby provincial park.

I don’t know why but the gifts are just for the kids so far. This only seems unfair when I think about it too much. I don’t have any gifts for the baby yet because I can’t figure out what to get her – another toy? I wanted to make some new booties for her but I ran out of time.

What weird thing did your kid ask for?

I am wondering what the weirdest things people's kids have asked for for Christmas. This one asked for a Japanese encyclopedia which he reads for hours on end. Mine asked for a doll potty for her doll house. What did yours ask for??

I had the best Christmas yet. Took the week off work and spent the whole time with my girls. We made things, played, baked, and played some more. The baby's getting to be a real nut. She loves stairs and is getting safer on them, thankfully. She is one determined little booger. Her current obsession is my drawer in the bathroom. She sneaks up there whenever she can and tries to open and empty the drawer onto the floor. We put the step stool in front of it which she hasn't figured out a way around yet, but now she steps onto that and opens daddy's drawer. It's only a matter of time before she figures out that if she gets off of the stool she would be able to open his drawer all the way, and then - I am picturing it in my head - Party Time!

1 spoon and 1 plate and 1 cup and 1 fork

Kids are so funny with their Christmas requests. Last year A. wanted a dollhouse, and she got it. But the ponies don’t fit on the furniture so this year she is asking for a doll for the dollhouse. Just one. I think she thinks she is more likely to get it if she only asks for one. And she wants 1 spoon and 1 plate and 1 cup and 1 fork. I told her that I had looked in the stores and couldn’t find any of those so she might not get it for Christmas. She told me that was ok, she wanted Santa to get it for her.
Well, I found it today – whole miniature placesettings, and yes, I splurged and got a whole set for 4. (They came in the box together.) There is even a turkey and a cheese tray and a miniature jellyroll. Then I spied the toilet and my heart skipped a beat – a Toilet! I’m not sure who designed the original dollhouse, but they forgot the toilet. It was missed immediately. This is a big deal. Where are the dolls supposed to go to the bathroom? There were three lamps and a wardrobe and even a footstool, but no toilet. Hmmm…..anyone who’s spent any time at all with preschoolers knows that toilets are very important.

Oh, I know all this miniature stuff is bound to be lost in a day or two, and I’m hoping none of it gets ingested by baby sister, but now the dollhouse will be complete – after I finish all the dolls, that is! I’ve come upon a stumbling block with the dolls – teeny tiny clothes are very hard to make. You basically have to sew them on. So I am getting creative and everyone’s wearing wool sweaters and tights. At least the hair is going well except that I don’t have any brown yarn so everyone either has blond, orange or white hair (I’m skipping green). Works for me, my kids have bits of white anyway, so I’m hoping to pretend I meant it that way. They’re an eclectic crew, and I promise to take (and post) a picture when they’re all done - probably Christmas Eve knowing me (pressure-prompted, anyone?).

Now I just have to figure out how to make a princess dress with yarn and embroidery floss. Wish me luck.

Oh, I wish I had time to blog all the stuff I am thinking of!

Christmas is coming and I have, once again, committed to making too many gifts. I just can't stand buying something ho hum when I can make something I'm really happy about giving. Nothing this year is as complicated as the birdhouses we constructed last year. I did learn from that. Of course, I don't think an unplanned birth will mess up the production schedule as it did last year (Can you believe it's almost been a whole year?!). I hope everyone likes what they're getting. Nothing is very big and it's all a little quirky and full of heart. I tried to stick to stuff I know how to do like painting and stuff that doesn't need to be perfect - like ugly dolls.

Also related to Christmas I wanted to post about lessons we're learning about advertising and buying stuff. Being 4 makes one so much more aware of the world. I'll blog about this later. Because it's ongoing and completely appropriate for the upcoming holidays.

Also on the list to blog about:
toothy babies that I miss so much,
a wonderful nanny,
(pink and sparkly) good times shopping with a preschooler,
other blogs I read whose lives I want to copy,
bento goodness,
and a rant asking people to stop asking if I'm glad to be back at work


And since no one in real life seems to be discussing it, what the heck is going on with Canadian politics?? I picked a fine year to start voting, let me tell ya. I can't stand politics at the best of times, and now they're talking about a Frankenstein-type coalition coup. I've heard pretty big rhetoric from both sides and am worried about our politics degenerating to one big squabbling match and power grab. That's certainly not what I voted for. I don't think that's what anybody voted for.

Bendy Dolls!

OK, you asked!

A. randomly commented the other day that she needs dolls for her doll house. I thought she was having fun playing with her ponies there but apparently they are too big for the bed so it doesn't really work. So I looked up dolls on etsy and found these bendy dolls. Then I found a tutorial on making them yourself, and voila, now I have something to do every lunchhour between now and Christmas. Here are more examples of finished dolls, and I couldn't resist bookmarking these pirates.

Mine don't have feet. I'm trying to do it without buying much extra materials. I figure I have lots of craft stuff at home to use (even though we purged a lot...doh!). (More on this these another time, I'm trying to retrain myself into using what we have rather than buying the solution to our problems. Like I said, more later.) I did buy some pink fabric and wooden heads, though. I didn't have any fabric that's pink and that's A's favourite color right now.

I just put a head on the doll that I made last week and it didn't fit! I think if I don't wrap the neck all the way up the head will fit. He needs clothes. He'll look better clothed. Then you won't notice how odd his body is....oh, they're going to look pretty eclectic! The green fuzz of the pipecleaner sticks through a bit. I may have to wrap him again... maybe striped legs...
Oh what fun. I'd like to make a boy, a girl, a kid and a baby for sure (you know, our family). Then, if there's time I'll add a pirate and a fairy and maybe some aunts or gramas. (And maybe another baby, har har) I have some lovely white wool so someone's going to have white hair.

And this is what I am thinking of making for R. (now 10 months old):
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=13879490
Should be easy enough as it's random. I'll sew on eyes instead of using buttons so she doesn't chew them off with those razor teeth and swallow them. She would so that.

We'll see if I have enough time for all the projects I'd like to do!

How Long 'Till Christmas?

Here's what we accomplished yesterday. It's a paper chain - each link is for one day until Christmas. Right now it's a long time until Christmas, that's what I was trying to get at.

Here are pictures of the links before we assembled it into a chain.

December 5-11:

December 11-24, and a Christmas tree on the top for the 25th:

And here's the whole thing assembled:

And now I'm off to scrape the glitter off the table.

Sock Monkeys!

These seem to be all the rage right now!

I found some fantastic instructions here for making your own sock monkey. Now I just have to find someone to give one to! My sister made a sock dog once and it was absolutely adorable. Eventually the ribbon fell off his neck, but he's still the cutest, and gets played with all the time.

I like all this diy stuff for gifts, but I wonder if anyone else appreciates it. I am planning on making a significant amount of christmas presents this year, and hope that I'm not wasting my time. If someone'd rather get a walmart gift certificate then maybe that's a more thoughtful gift.